Afraid of Heights is ok, it’s Wavves most sophisticated, it’s fun for one or two spins on a sunny day and the duo due take a few chances but at the end of the day, the thing that Wavves are most afraid of isn’t heights, its originality.

The album is chirpy, playful and transitory, dispensing 10 songs in 31 minutes.

In crafting an album that’s filled with largess, they give their fans a work that genuinely seems destined for the ages.

Unfortunately, while the singers add some variety to the down-tempo dance stew that Green comes up with, they also fade into his lounge-like, bare-bones background all too well without adding much flavor, not to mention bite, to the proceedings.

Some of their ‘80s-style material also works in a pretty way (“Re-invent Your Second Wheel,” “BW Silence,” “Time Lock Fog”), but not so that you’re convinced that their collective hearts are in it.

The Men almost casually demonstrate a mastery of song-based rock & roll that usually comes from decades of work.

More a series of half-drawn soundscapes than actual songs per se, No Elephants comes across as an exercise in the abstract, in which the artist makes almost no attempt to color inside the outlines.

Both revealing and resilient, Spring and Fall could be deservedly called an album for all seasons.

For all of Fritz’s humorous lyrical twists, his strongest moments here often are when he doesn’t hide his feelings behind funny lines.

The best tracks, though, come when Earle focuses on just simply rockin’.

Marrying Beam’s continued interest in keeping the beat moving with some of the strongest folk/pop melodies he’s yet composed, Ghost on Ghost evolves Iron & Wine music even further into the realm of the mystic.

Finds the Present Tense reconciles past with future and makes for a compelling connection.

The band’s timbres are more distinctive than its songs, which means that even the shorter tunes are best when they let the instruments do the talking.

Bradley and his band are such great interpreters and expanders of the soul tradition that you don’t mind the nagging feeling that you’ve heard these cuts before.

Given the jam-friendly group’s propensity for live euphoria but recorded disappointment, it’s a relief to hear that the Hiss has finally hit its stride in the studio with Water On Mars.

This LA-based hardcore band turns out their most consistently solid set of songs yet; a dozen tracks of distorted guitars, machine gun drumming and throat-reddening vocals.

The results meld as mood music of the highest variety--dense yet delicate, edgy and yet elegiac.

The guitars still crunch as hard as ever, and Dan Peters’ drumming has that distinct set of accents that keep the anticipation high.

The Next Day is complex, pissed off and crafty.

Growing up in the Nottingham projects may have given Bugg enough life experience to get away with penning “Seen It All,” but it’s his sonic aesthetic that give his tales truth.

Indigo Meadow is an assured, exciting piece of work.

Wild Chorus stays true to its title as it winds its way through a series of sensuous yet spunky duets.

While Burdon himself remains indignant, and indomitable, his tenacious stance is coached in songs that rarely measure up to the classics credited to him early on.

The sound is a little too familiar, and--like a lot of Scandinavian music makers--the Deer Tracks are more style than substance.

You're Nothing is an album full of power--power which makes you think and react viscerally.

Honky-Tonk is a Country Music album. No Alt required.

A musical journey through spiritual and physical emotions, Electric Word will stir and soothe the soul.

Chain Letters is a solid album and Big Harp brilliantly adds to the growing plethora of artists crafting stark, raw music that strikes the core.